By Denzil Doyle
In my last article, I discussed the tendency of key stakeholders in a high technology company to call for the CEO’s resignation at the first sign of trouble, particularly if the CEO is a technical person who lacks “business management” experience. The pressure for change is usually strongest from the financial community. My advice to a board of directors that must deal with such pressure is to remain focused on the qualities that any good CEO must possess regardless of his or her background, namely leadership, management, technology knowhow, and marketing knowhow.
I cited the example of Ken Olsen, the founding president of Digital Equipment Corporation, who came under severe criticism from Wall Street for turning in a bad quarter shortly after the company went public, despite the fact that he had built a company with sales of over $100 million in less than a decade. (That was the equivalent of over $1 billion today.)
Ken decided to go to New York and address his critics directly. He started with a lecture that went something like this:
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By Leo Valiquette
Last month’s lineup featured great posts on how established companies should innovate, a startup CEO’s tips for wooing investors, the risks of discounting your product and the need for philanthropy to be a natural part of doing business. And of course, there was plenty of sage advice on what it takes to make marketing work.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
April 18: In search of that Entrepreneurial Spark, by Maurice Smith
April 23: What have you done for someone else lately?, by Leo Valiquette
April 11: Want more business from your website? Here are 6 things your customers need to see, by Tim Peter
April 24: A startup CEO’s tips for wooing investors, by John Hill and Leo Valiquette
April 25: The folly (or possibly the wisdom) of discounting, by Francis Moran
April 10: Best of: The saddest marketing story I’ve ever heard, by Francis Moran
April 17: My top travel tips, by Francis Moran
April 8: When is it time to say, ‘Our CEO’s got to go?’by Denzil Doyle
April 16: The imperatives of leaders, leadership and leading, by Bob Bailly
April 29: In it until everyone crosses the finish line, by Leo Valiquette
April 15: What an entrepreneur can learn from a literary conference: Part III, by Leo Valiquette
April 4: Trademark hygiene: A cautionary tale, by David French
April 30:Patent harvesting versus mandated innovation, by David French
April 3: ‘You can’t cross a canyon in two leaps’, by Francis Moran
April 2: Best of: Just the facts … no, these facts, by Leo Valiquette
April 9: What an entrepreneur can learn from a literary conference: Part II, by Leo Valiquette
Image: April 2013 Calendar Printable
By David J. French
The expression “patent harvesting” has surfaced in management jargon. These words invoke a scenario wherein corporate management looks under the carpet, so to speak, to see if somewhere in their organization the staff have generated good ideas that are worth patenting.
However, corporate management philosophy has also introduced the further concept of “mandated innovation.” According to this latter concept, a corporation, instead of waiting for inventions to surface from within the organization, actively analyzes the kinds of innovations that would advance corporate plans for the future. A mandate is then issued to technical staff to generate the details necessary to support such innovations.
In both cases, the corporation hopes to obtain patent protection for ideas and innovations which will have real market impact and add further profit to the bottom line.
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By Denzil Doyle
By definition, innovation is all about change, which means that the duties and responsibilities of a high technology CEO are bound to change as the company grows.
While a board of directors must pay close attention to those changes and how well the existing CEO is reacting to them, the board must resist the temptation to terminate the CEO prematurely. This is particularly true if the founding CEO is a technical person. Many directors are of the opinion that it is their responsibility to bring in a more “business-oriented” person at the first sign of trouble.
Unfortunately, business orientation can mean different things to different people, but as a general rule, the following four parameters are important in a CEO’s evaluation:
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By David J. French
Businesses, particularly when they are starting out, often make the mistake of assuming that by merely incorporating they have reserved their name. They have acquired some rights, but only in the smallest sense. The corporate register that issues a corporate name, for example the province or the federal government, will not create another corporation with the same name. But that does not mean that merely because a corporation has been formed that such company has the right to stop others from using its name simply because it has been incorporated.
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